An Introduction to the Lighthouse Timeline

Please note. Any information on these pages is subject to change without notice. Events are still rippling through the timestream, both Inside and Outside. There may also be inconsistencies because of this.

The following briefing documents have been prepared for the benefit of those agents of the Sable Intelligence Service (and others) who were on the Outside on 11th April SY 159, and were not involved in the events of that day. Think of them as “Things you need to know to prevent people thinking you’ve gone insane because you remember them differently”

An OOC note for Sable players

In a game run at ACNI 2022, I broke my own cardinal rule of never including a time element in my games, and something fundamental happened which is going to have repurcussions in the game as a whole. Certain things that have happened in the past may now either happen in a different order, or not at all; while there may be other events which didn’t happen in the original timeline, but have now. This isn’t going to affect new players, who will have always lived under the new “Lighthouse Timeline”. It is likely to affect existing PCs, however.

I am aware from experience that PCs really don’t like it when their GM says “No, that didn’t happen, you don’t remember that”. Therefore, I’m leaving the option open to all existing players to choose whether or not you want to keep the memories of prior games you’ve played, or have been caught up in the change.

It’s a very simple mechanism. If your PC(s) don’t want to be caught up in the change, then you will have been on assignment to Murray. For pretty much all of you, this will have been the first time you’ve ever been “Outside”. Grey will have decided to give each of you the opportunity to experience Murray and the Shadows immediately around it (no, I’m not going to inflict the full Aurellis background on you, not least because the power levels of the two games are very different). He would have explained that he is considering whether he needs a team of external agents posted permanently on the Outside. This doesn’t mean that you would be those agents (unless you choose to be), but you will have been Outside at the point when the “thing” happened. This would, however, mean that all your characters’ memories of past games would be unchanged.

At the time you headed Outside, the ruler of Murray was Dominic de Lacy-Ellis. He was called Inside on 10th April SY159 for a strategy meeting with respect to a letter of displeasure recently delivered to Jensen, where the government has been working actively to destabilise the Commonwealth, and never returned. Instead, the Regent of Murray is now (and has been for fifty years) Princess Emily.

From a personal point of view for the PCs, everyone will still be born and marry who they married (if they married), because to do otherwise would be unfair to all of you, some of whom have been playing for a really long time (1997!). Interactions with the NPCs may be a bit different, though.

Trains of Thought

These are OOC for the players’ amusement, but will hopefully prove that we are thinking carefully about the changes that are rippling through.